first on 3!
udderan dat - I gots nuthin
I like being in the same room with ems because her travels make me look like the epitome of geographical tranquility 
Welcome back MMMMMMMMMs!
Two down and three to go!
I have a beastloaf in the oven. I took it out of the freezer last night. Continuin’ the comfort food fare this week at Chez Cave, tonight shall be beastloaf, smashed N.O.T., green beans and steamed baby carrots. I’ll even thoughtfully bake that pan of frozen rolls I took out of the freezer.
It’s still cold! Cut it out already Canada!
VunderKind and I are gettin’ ready for a bambilance shift…
Try not to kill him this time, mkay? 
Gee golly but it’s been a decade.
Ten years ago I was in my second year in college, but starting a new major, so taking lots of freshman courses all over again. I lived in a dorm room. I didn’t have a car. I didn’t have a job, and hardly any money in the bank. I didn’t have a boyfriend. I was a virgin. I’d been out of the country only once. I didn’t even drink coffee.
Ten years later, I have two bachelors degrees, a masters, and a PhD. I have a job with a six-figure salary. I own a house and a new car. I’ve been all over Europe and the Caribbean. I have a cat. I have a husband. Oh, he owns a house too, so I guess we own two houses (we’re trying to fix that, though). I wear contacts. I finally cut my hair. I have a past I’d frankly like to forget about. And I have hopes and dreams for the future… hopes and dreams that I’m finally going to get on to the part of my life that I really wanted all the time.
It takes a lot of work to get your ducks in order, you know?
Nava my globetrotting days are coming to an end with the move to the US so you can be the MMP travel queen
Jet lag is the suck I am soooooo tired but I know if I got to bed now I will be up in 4 hours…I could unpack but that also requires energy I don’t have. 2 day work week for me!
Hi all! I don’t usually pass by the MMP but I thought I’d say Hi. Fish sauce… :: shudder ::
My decade? The best I can say about the Zeroes is that they sucked lass than the Nineties for me. No-one actiually died this decade. Lessee…
In 2000 I went to Europe and spent a week in Finland speaking Esperanto, a week travelling and reading signs, and a week in England speaking English. However, the holiday was the last straw financially, so to speak; it pushed me over the edge into an accellerating snowball of debt. I went to debt counselling and then signed a “consumer proposal” which meant I could pay back only part of my debt, but had no access to credit.
During the debt counseling, I changed banks and moved to an apartment from my rented room, and left what was becoming a Class Two squalor behind*. (Being behind the curve financially does nothing for neatness.) I spent the following five years being broke as I paid off debt, and then finally the day came when it was paid off. A year or so further, and I was able to get a credit card and rejoin society. Since then, I’ve kept that card paid off.
During the same period, I went to group counseling every two weeks. This enabled me to get used to emotional intensity and interpersonal relations, something which I completely didn’t get before. I knew nothing of subtext or subtlety or body language, and paying attention to these things is still an act of will, rather than something which comes naturally.
It wasn’t until after the group counseling ended in mid-decade that I found aout about things like Asberger’s syndrome and face blindness. Suddenly various features of my life made more sense, like why it took so long for me to get to know people. I have to consciously deduce who everyone is when I meet them, rather than just recognizing them, and that is easily thrown off by anything from a change of hair style to a change of context. Which is why, that day when I was giving platelets in Toronto and a woman said Hi to me from another bed, I didn’t know who it was and just saiid Hi vaguely back. I think it was a Doper, possibly Mahna Mahna, but I’m not certain.
On the other hand, I actually had a girlfriend for a few glorious months last year. We broke up, and I haven’t made another attempt since, but given that it was the first time since 1993, it was still great. I was very surprised that it happened, actually; I’d given up, thought I was too old and all that.
In other news, I retained the same job all this time until last April, when I got laid off. Since then I’ve been living on stored fat (a severace payment and savings) while trying to reinvent myself as an independent designer of passive-solar houses. This is turning out to be much more difficult than I expected–not the work so much as the self-discipline. I have always been just a muddler working in an obscure cubicle, and trying to become Vigorous and Pro-Active and all that is not easy. Exercise helps. This is my struggle right now. If it wasn’t such an oppurtunity…
Yet I still have a little voice saying I’m not in the best place for me. Should I have continued with the screenwriting courses I gave up to study the building code? Finishing details drives me crazy… I really wanted to do things like design science-fiction worlds. And I would love to do my visions of a sustainable green future using these solar-powered houses. This is the same struggle I’ve had all through my life, since high school. Art versus tech. Vision versus practical. Dreaming versus making money. And I have a horrible feeling that if I’d taken the other fork inthe road, I would have made it into that visonary world of artists who did things like Avatar…
[sub]*Actually, we cleaned it up.[/sub]
I’m back! A little bird told me how to access the Dope from work. Yay!
But I’m kinda busy… Boo.
{{{{{kai}}}}}
**gt **- I can take Jan 18 - turns out I’m off that day too!
Got an extra 1.5 hours today - still don’t know if this presentation will be put to bed tomorrow. I hope so - I want to take off Friday and Monday, just because. I’ll find out tomorrow.
We had a snow shower, but it was gone pretty fast. More predicted tomorrow and Friday - we shall see.
**swampy **- GMTA - I have a meatloaf in the oven, but the sides will be rice-a-roni and probably corn.
Hugs to everyone else. I need to get back into the kitchen. I need a wife!
Beastloaf was good! GMTA indeed MOOOOOOM!
Ok, listen up weather! This idea of rain mixed with snow stuff? Just. Cut. It. Out. I mean it! You are not allowed to snow around me! Don’t give me that look! I said NO!!!
There! That oughta take care of that!
When I think Canadian Authors I think L.M. Montgomery. Margaret Atwood is okay but she tends to like her soapbox a bit too much for my taste.
I swear to God and Sonny Jesus, I am going to have to kick a puppy since I can’t punch people at the graduate school. There is some kind of Sacred Form that I must sign, as well as the library (not a worker at the library, the actual library itself) and for some reason THEY CAN’T MAIL IT TO ME. I just posted a gripe on my FB and I’m hoping some of my peeps in Reference will read it and offer a sista a hand. Because if not I may have to make a weekend trip to Pirateville for screaming and yelling purposes.
I guess they never expected an ECU graduate to get a full time job with responsibilities somewhere. Shocking, I know.
Ours was good, too. yum! I’s now stuffded. Daughter is doing leftovers and dishes, and I’ll load the dishwasher when she’s done.
Yes, I load it because I can get more stuff in it in such a way that it all comes clean. No matter how many times I say “Make sure you don’t block the spray from getting to the detergent dispenser” - well, you know… No one wants to do it right, so I do it myself!
More knitting on tap for tonight. I’m using up yarn scraps at a fast and furious rate! Plus it keeps my creeky fingers nimble. And I can watch TV while I knit - yay for multitasking!
C’mon Firday!! I’ve had enough week already!
I forgot our big fishtank news - our wolf eel is preggo! Well, sorta - she’s full of eggs and she’ll probably lay them soon. But we don’t have another wolf eel, so all she’s doing is making caviar.
The anthias - the pink fish which we know is a male, has been “cuddling” with the eel, as much as fish can cuddle. So who knows - we may end up with a tank full of pink eels! :eek:
More than likely, the lionfish and the hermit crab will chow down…
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!! Welcome back! When will you be moving back to California? (That’s where you’re going, right?)
Seconded; and don’t worry, it will take a while before your world-traveler rep fades.
FCM, it took me a second, but when I figured out you’d be off I thought you might be interested. 
Sunspace and Sattua thanks for the interesting accounts. I wasn’t sure how this topic would go over and am pleasantly surprised at everything that’s being shared.
**
Bobbio**, hope you’ve said hi to the VunderKind from us.
Home for a few days off now. Still need to tie some loose ends up from work, but after that I’ll be FREEEEEEEEEEEE!
Back later.
GT
Some people truly amaze me.
Hello all.
I hope your Dad went to the doctor, Pie.
Hugs for the rest of you with your various boo-boos, owies, and tribulations.
My daughter got home around six o’clock last night. I was so happy to see her. I made her favorite, burritos and had a New York style cheesecake waiting for her, along with her birthday presents.
She said it was damn cold back there and was glad to be back home. We chatted for quite some time and then she went upstairs to relax. She’s at work right now, though.
Forgot to tell all of you, my son got the job he interviewed for, so he gave his notice at Sonic and turned in his uniform. He went in yesterday to fill out paperwork and will be starting any day now.
Other than work and a follow-up aptt with the girly bit doc tomorrow, not much else going on. I am really, really, really hoping he’ll tell me I can have an ablation.
Work was busy, and I got wrapped up in a project. I worked right through lunch and then had to head off to a meeting, so I never got eat anything but a handful of almonds today.
Hugs and smooches to all.
I’m not sure about Canadian writers, but there’s a stratum of just plain perversity in our filmmakers. Videodrome? Crash? ::shudder ::
We just don’t do sunny optimism.
I blame the weather.
Thank you!
Y’know, on reading Sattua’s account, that’s sort of how I thought my life would go when I graduated from school. Little did I realize that the universe had other plans…
I’ve been officially chastised for not participating.
I offer my humblest apologies to our most worthy OP.
HAPPY NEW YEAR Y’ALL!!!
OH.MY.GOODNESS! Did you see who just popped in?
Man, I am stah-vin mah-vin, but I don’t feel like doing anything, like, you know, actually cooking dinner.